Starring Andrew Koji, Olivia Cheng, Jason Tobin, Joe Taslim, Kieran Bew. Warrior tells the story of a Chinese immigrant arriving in American to find his estranged sister only to be recruited by the local Chinese gangsters to battle other rival gangsters.
Back in my most anticipated martial arts movies of 2019 list. I gave Warrior a shout out even though it’s a tv show and not a movie because I thought it looked awesome and I was right.
Warrior was originally written and pitched to a studio by Bruce Lee in the ’70s. Back then the studio stupidly rejected it but not only did they reject it they actually stole parts of his script and made Kung Fu with it staring David Carradine. Kung Fu is about a chinese immigrant who travels to America. I’m guessing lawsuits weren’t a big thing back then but I’m actually kind of glad they rejected it because they would not have done it justice as Warrior has.
It starts with Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) fresh off the boat arriving in America in 1878 San Francisco. America was importing Chinese immigrants as cheap labour. Right off the bat Sahms cocky attitude gets him into trouble with the local bulls organising the immigrants. They try to beat on him but he easily takes all 3 out with a couple of flashy moves. Naturally, Sahm fights and moves very much like Bruce Lee. This gets him noticed by a local fixer who has his hand in a lot of cookie jars Wang Chao (Hoon Lee). Chao tells him there is a lot of use for someone with his skills so he introduces him to the local Tongs run by Father Jun (Perry Yung). They need skilled fighters as rivals Tongs are cutting in on their opium trade. Sahm is decked out in a slick suit and partnered with Father Jun heir Young Jun (Jason Tobin)
Sahm sees nothing wrong with this and actually seems to relish working for the Tongs. His original reason for coming to American is to find his sister Mai Ling (Dianne Doan) and boy does he find her. As fate would have it, she pretty much runs the rival crew as she is married to its leader who is near enough at war with Sahm’s crew. Sahms soon finds out she is not the same person he remembers as all he wants to do is take her home back to China but she doesn’t want to leave as she now likes her criminal life. She is also accompanied by her skilled henchman and lover Li Yong (Joe Taslim)
As the show progresses, we are introduced to racist Irishman Dylan Leary (Dean s. Jagger) who runs his local racket, loves a good fight and hates the Chinese immigrants as they are undercutting his fellow Irishmen as cheap labour.
Reluctant Cop Bill O’Hare (Kieran Bew) has Chinatown forced into his jurisdiction and told to recruit 4 other policemen. Honest and general good guy cop Richard Lee (Tom Weston-Jones) volunteers for this. O’Hare just wants an easy life with no hassle and he doesn’t see patrolling Chinatown as the right move for this.
Other character includes a very kinky mayor (Christine Mckay) His forced to marry him wife Penny Blake (Joanna Vanderham) and the mayor sinister assistant Walter Buckley (Langley Kirkland) who just wants to keep the Tongs at war with each other.
The whole show kind of has a weston feel but in a built-up city. For anyone who’s seen The Hunt for Red October and Vikings, Warriors language scenes play out in a similar manner. The Chinese character all speak perfect English to each other but that’s just for us the audience, in their world, they are speaking Chinese. Whenever their’s a white character or as the Chinese call them (Ducks) around they speak Chinese with subtitles. Maybe a few know a little English. Sahm, of course, can speak perfect English which surprises some characters.
The fights scenes and choreography are great and fairly brutal. The Tongs are called hatchet men for a reason, they all carry hatchets so I’m sure you can imagine at some of the brutality of the fights. Sahm is obviously his crew’s best fighter and easily takes out most but a few are as skilled maybe more skilled such as Li Yong. Without spoiling too much they have a pretty epic battle later on.
You can obviously see BruceLee wrote this with himself in mind playing the lead as Sahm has that cocky charismatic personal who moves and fights like Lee. Later on, in the season Sahm and Young Jun venture out of town and pretty much step straight into a western with cowboys and a saloon.
In conclusion, the whole series was great, there are ten episodes in season 1, it leaves open at the end for season 2 which has already been announced. It’s just a shame it’s only on Cinemax which I’m guessing not a lot of people have but it’s worth getting just for this and the awesome Banshee. You can watch Warrior on Cinemax now.
Rating: 4/5 Belts
